Word Watch: How Did We Go From 'Terrific' To 'Horrific'?

ROB KYFF, Special To The CourantThe Hartford Courant

Q: Could you explain why "terrible" and "horrible" are synonyms but "terrific" and "horrific" are antonyms? — Richard Katz, Niantic

A: Glad to. All four words started out with the same general meaning: "inducing great fear or distress." Over the centuries, three of them — "terrible," " horrible" and "horrific" — have retained this original meaning.

And "terrific" did too, until well into the 20th century. In 1929, for instance, Homer Babson warned American investors that the coming stock market crash was going to be "terrific." And, believe me, he didn't mean the crash would be a good thing.

Today, we still use "terrific" in this negative, terrifying sense, as when we speak of a "terrific explosion." But during the 20th century, "terrific" took on an additional, more positive meaning: "unusually fine, magnificent, splendid."

How did this happen?

Linguists think the progression from fearful to fantastic went something like this: Because "terrific" meant "creating great terror," it gradually came to mean "exciting, sensational, overwhelming."

But about 100 years ago, people started using "terrific" to describe POSITIVE events that were thrilling: "a terrific party," "a terrific performance." Using this negative term to describe something good seemed to intensify the positive traits, as when teenagers use "bad" and "sick" to mean "great!"

Similarly, "fantastic" and "incredible," two other adjectives that now mean "excellent," originally had the more negative meaning "not real, not believable."

The semantic shift from a negative to positive meaning is called "melioration." Other "meliorites" include "nice" (which once meant "foolish"), "shrewd" (once "dangerous") and dogged (once "vicious").

Of course, words can shift from positive to negative meanings as well.

"Cunning," for instance, once meant knowledgeable": "obsequious" once meant "flexible"; and "villain" once meant "a villager," nefarious or not.

Similarly, when King James II described St. Paul's Cathedral as "awful, amusing and artificial," he was praising it, not trashing it. Back then, these three words meant, respectively, "inspiring awe," "amazing" and "full of artifice."

And some words have come full circle. "Notoriety," for instance, which once meant simply "fame," later came to mean "disrepute." But recently many people have been using "notoriety" in a positive sense, thus restoring its original meaning.